sunday

Another weekend has been and gone.  I had unit stuff yesterday (viewing for potential new tenants) and afterwards I visited Mum and her man J.  Sounds like it’s getting serious between them – he’s just about living there, they’re planning all kinds of trips overseas, and he’s even redirected his mail to Mum’s place.  If he wasn’t such a lovely man I’d be worried, but he really is just great.  I also can’t believe my mother’s luck in having not one, but two men in her life who will cook for her and run around after her like she’s a princess.  What are the odds?!

I’ve discovered the entire online collection of Peanuts.  This comic strip was formative in my and my brother’s early years.  I had a Snoopy stuffed doll which my brother adopted.  Snoopy (or ‘Noosy’, as A used to refer to him) came with us everywhere for a good couple of years, including on holidays.  We have photos of A asleep in the car, using Noosy as a pillow.  So yes, please have a look at the Peanuts goodness – current favourite strip is here.

While we didn’t get any food shopping done this weekend, we did manage to clean both bathrooms, do some washing, and vacuum the house.  That’s gotta count for something.  Plus, I did some gardening.  The area out the back that we reticulated a few weeks ago, has started sprouting new little weeds all over the place, like a thin fine layer of dust settles inside your house.  So I’ve spent a couple of hours (so far) getting out there and ripping the little buggers up.  I said to SO that if I can do a bit every night after work, it’ll be good for my stress levels, and it’ll probably sort out the weed issue in a week or so.  (Whether this actually happens or not is another story.)

My stress levels are pretty high at the moment.  I can tell from the signals my body’s sending me – feeling sick in the stomach, nervous, agitated, the usual.  It feels like it used to before I got onto Lexapro.  This is not a good thing.  I’m trying to tell myself that I’m just having a bad day, I’m tired, and I’m stressed.  It’ll pass.  Hopefully.  SO noticed I was feeling like crap, so he took me out for lunch.  He bought a couple of continental rolls from the local deli, then drove me to a beach which has a park at the top of it.  We sat there and ate, while watching the families having barbeques and kicking balls around with their kids.  It was beautiful and restful, and just what I needed.  I came back and had a three hour nap, and I’m feeling like I’m more able to cope with life.  Still not 100%, but a lot better than I was.  I think I have the best husband in the whole world.

busy week

One of our tenants moved out of one of our units last weekend.  The final inspection (to assess how much of the bond was returned) was at 11am.  For the rest of the day, I scrubbed toilets, handbasins, sinks, the oven, benchtops, walls (to get rid of marks), and windows.  I also did about a thousand loads of laundry – four sets of sheets, eight towels, together with bathmats, handtowels, quilt covers, and teatowels.

And where was SO during all this activity, I hear you ask?  Well, he was out doing some necessary shopping.  The tenant had burned every last one of the saucepans and pots beyond repair, so they needed to be replaced.  Also, the vacuum cleaner had given up the ghost, so we needed to get a new one.  Plus, there were various other things that we either needed to get or needed to replace, so he was running around for the majority of the day.  When he got back, he changed washers on taps, cleaned the shower, and vacuumed throughout.  After all our hard work however, the unit was spotless and ready to hand over on Sunday, which went smoothly.

update

Ugh, I’ve been neglecting this blog again.  My bad.  We’ve been fairly busy, with one thing and another.  One of the units we put an offer on fell through, and there have been a few dramas with finance for the other.  We should know by next Friday if it’s all okay to go ahead.  Fingers crossed!

My fantastic boss leaves in a few weeks, so that’s been really sad.  I’ve so enjoyed working with her, she’s a great person as well as a great boss.  She’s actually suggested I come to work at her organisation.  I’m considering it.  I wouldn’t be reporting to her, but the work itself would be great, really interesting and varied, and the people I’d be working with are apparently good too, which of course makes a huge difference.  So yes, that’s one option to get away from my ‘proper’ boss, who will be returning shortly.

Speaking of work, SO is away in the country for a few days.  It’s good and it’s bad.  I do like having the place to myself at night, so I can just veg out and do nothing, and not feel guilty about not making dinner (or making it just in time for the 10pm news).  But I don’t sleep so well without him around, and I worry about him.  He’s had to fly in a light plane, as well, which he hates.  The good news is, he got there okay, now he just needs to get home again.  I’m sure he will, but I hate to think of him alone in his hotel room and stressing about the flight home.  Poor love.

That said, I’ve already cleaned up heaps, so the place is nice and organised, and I even have dinner sorted out - leftover spaghetti bolognese.  Yum!  All I have to do is zap it.  Even I can manage that.  Plus, what does a girl without a man in her 30s do? Catches up with her gay friends, of course!  I’m meeting K tomorrow for a coffee.  We actually work together but in different areas, so we don’t get a chance to really talk properly.  We normally have a coffee about once or twice a fortnight.  He’s recently fallen in love and so there’s lots to catch up on at the moment.

Things have generally been good.  We’ve got new tenants for one of our units, so that’s great.  The old ones move out this Saturday, and the new ones move in on Sunday, so we’ll be flat out cleaning everything in between.  Luckily we like a challenge.   Other tenancies are ongoing so that’s no hassle to us.

Yawn…. I think it’s time to get my dinner in the microwave.  Hungry.

milk

No, I’m not referring to the famous ‘Got Milk?’ ads, wherein the latest celebrity of the moment sports a milk moustache.  I’m talking about the movie, and Harvey Milk, and those outside the traditional heteronormative view of society.

The movie was striking in many ways.  However, the key scene for me was when Sean Penn’s Milk was sitting in a bar by himself, watching Anita Bryant on a tv in the pub saying the most horrendous things about homosexuals.  The thing that struck me the most was the expression on his face – the sadness, and at the same time, acceptance, that such bigots did really exist.  He understood Bryant’s position was geniune (to her) as well as the fact that many people agreed with what she was saying.  I think it was that sad resignation that got to me.  I was angry just watching the movie; I don’t know how I would have been living in that society at that time.  I probably would have kicked every door in my way in my absolute fury at how a majority group could get away with treating other groups, whether they be gay, black, whatever. 

It was just a very quiet, undramatic scene, but it really struck home.  I had dreams that night about it; I ruminated over it for the next few days.  It stayed with me in a way other scenes and other movies, no matter how good, have not.   And I have to say, Sean Penn was amazing – he absolutely deserved his Academy Award.  Having seen both Milk and Slumdog Millionaire in the last week, I think that Milk was robbed at the Oscars.  It was definitely a much better movie than Slumdog Millionaire.

If you haven’t seen it, please do.

back to work tomorrow

We’ve had such a good week off.  We did attack the garden, and it looks about a thousand times better.  Before, it was a dirty spot where lawn clippings lived; now, it’s a reticulated (irrigated) garden bed.  It even has a lemon tree in it, if you can call a stick about waist-high with seven leaves a tree.  Well, it will be a tree, some time in the future.  I also did a good deed, and moved a gardenia from the front of the house to the new garden bed.  Poor little thing, it was getting fried by too much sunlight.  Combined with being in a particularly dry part of the garden, where it only received water if the wind blew in the right direction, it was definitely on its way out.  Now it’s in a shaded spot and between two sprinklers.  If it doesn’t improve, out it goes.

We saw Dralion on Friday night.  It was fantastic.  One of the things I always forget about Cirque du Soleil is the beauty of the music.  It takes you to somewhere else.  It was just incredible, the whole show.  And SO indulged me – we had popcorn, and I had not one, but two Cornettos.  Yum!!  Fortunately, this balanced out with the plain raw vegies I had for lunch, so I didn’t really ‘break’ my diet as such – I just kind of stretched the outer limits of it.

It’s just been such a good week.  Every day we’ve woken up at a reasonable hour (never later than 9am) and we’ve had a coffee together.  It’s been such a great way to start the day.  I even cooked dinner every single night (apart from once, when we had take away).  Plus, the fact we sorted out the garden bed is a big bonus.  Every time we look out the back, we both instinctively look over to the right at it.  What can I say, all that hard effort was worth it.  (Well, it was hard effort for SO, who did most of the digging and reticulation stuff.  I mostly weeded and planted.)  Still, these things don’t last forever, and we’re back to the grindstone tomorrow.  Oh well, it’s given us a renewed taste for early retirement, I can tell you.

holidays etc

Mmm, I can feel myself sinking into ‘holiday mode’.  This mainly consists of having afternoon naps, which is pretty much my ideal lifestyle.  I’m also finding myself more interested in cooking.  Tonight, for example, I’ve made up a triple batch of my favourite rissole recipe, so we’ll have some of those together with roast vegies.  Yum!!

SO told me today that we’re going to be going to Dralion this Friday!!  I love Cirque du Soleil productions.  He took me to see Varekai when it was on in Perth, and it was one of the very few happy memories I have from when I was very badly depressed (as in, suicidal).  It was just a wonderful evening.  As I said, it’s a memory I hold close to my heart.  Not only was it wonderful in itself, it also illustrated SO’s love for me, that he took me to something he thought I would enjoy, and he really went all out for it to be fantastic.  I’m so lucky.  So yes, I’m really looking forward to it

In other news, we went shopping for the garden today.  We bought a lemon tree, a Eureka, so I’m happy.  SO and I have an ongoing disagreement about lemon trees.  I think they’re essentially ornamental, with their dark green shiny leaves, white flowers and growing habit.  Plus, they grow lemons!  Our local fruit and vegie shop sells them for $1 each, which is beyond ridiculous for something that grows like a weed.  SO, on the other hand, can’t understand why anyone would bother to own one. 

I present my argument:

How is that not attractive?!

Anyhow, we’ve reached a compromise – rather than put it in the front yard (which is what I wanted, as it gets the most sun) we’re going to put it in the back garden, where we have an empty garden bed.  We also bought some small pot plants, and some other assorted stuff like cow poo, soil improver, etc.  So yes, I got some retail therapy in, and all for less than $100 – not bad.  SO’s not so overjoyed, as he knows he’ll have to reticulate that garden bed before we actually plant anything out, but it should only take him about half a day.  And as I said to him, it’s good to have a project for when we’re on leave, as it makes it feel like we’ve accomplished something.  (I have yet to figure out what my project is – I suspect it’ll be trying to clear the backlog of ironing we have piling up.  Sigh.)

My weight is still very slowly trending downwards.  I’m losing about half a kilo to a kilo per week.  It’s going okay – I try and fit in ‘normal’ eating if I’m out somewhere.  So yesterday, for example, when we were at SO’s dad and stepmum’s for dinner, I relaxed.  I didn’t eat huge amounts, but I did have dessert, and a piece of rocky road afterwards.  There’s no point living on a starvation diet, because there’s no way I’ll be able to maintain it, so I try to relax when we’re out.  I just watch what I eat the next day.  Like I said, so far it’s been both manageable and effective, which is great.  If I lose another seven kilos, I’ll be a size 12 again.  I’m starting to think it’s doable.